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The Colorado Junior Karting Club celebrated its 2008 mid-season race at Action Karting in Morrison, CO June 29th with the fourth stop on this year's IKF 4-a Junior Karting Championship Series. The event enjoyed perfect Colorado weather and the largest turnout to date in both Kid Kart, with eight entries and Jr-1 with an enthusiastic field of eighteen!
 
KID KART FIELD OF EIGHT JR-1 FIELD OF EIGHTEEN
With three events scheduled for the Action Karting track located at Bandimere Speedway outside Denver during '08, the configuration was changed to mix things up and challenge the young IKF drivers with no practice prior to two sessions race day morning followed by qualifying. With the shortened distance both Kid Kart and Jr-1 utilized the same layout giving the Kid Karts room to stretch their wings a bit and compressing the large Jr-1 field making for more traffic and passing experience than some racers see over an entire season.
The day began with the club's first Rookie Graduation Ceremony. This ceremony is for all drivers after they have completed their fifth race in their designated class. The drivers are asked to bring their karts to the driver's meeting, and they ceremoniously "remove their stripe", after which they receive a "graduation medal". There were three driver's that participated in this ceremony, they were Dylan Cantrell #78 in Kid Karts, Brooks Dickerson # 77, and Cooper Dickerson #7 both of Jr-1.
  
ROOKIE GRADUATION CEREMONY COOPER REMOVES HIS STRIPE OUR THREE PROUD GRADUATES
In Kid Karts it was Blake Hannum #5 setting the pace during qualifying setting pole with an ET of 42.47 and series points leader Mario Jacobellis #24x right on his heels only a 10th of a second behind. The heat race saw Blake take the early lead, but Mario came through with a brilliant pass to take the lead. Soon after, Blake made a corner cutting move through the chicane tangling with Mario and allowing third place Dylan Cantrell #78 to take advantage of the mishap going into first. Fortunately, Mario recovered quickly finishing 2nd retaining his position on the front row for the main.
BLAKE TAKES EARLY LEAD IN HEAT RACE
The Kid Kart main proved to be one of the most exciting to date with many of the eight entries competing on the lead lap. Dylan and Mario diced for the lead on the challenging track layout. When the checkered flag eventually came Dylan Cantrell #78 was the victor earning his first event win.
DYLAN'S FIRST VICTORY
Mario Jacobellis #24x came in second and Blake Hannum #5 came from 7th to finish third setting quick lap of the event at 42.30. Coming up fast was rookie Caden Perkins #24 in 4th, new CJKC member Max Fedler #3 finishing in 5th, rising Kid Kart star Taybor Duncan #10 secured 6th, rookie Chandler Slowik #8 finished in 7th and rounding out the impressive field was Jacqueline Lazier #6. With Dylan Cantrell's event win he now moves into 2nd in series points with 766 just ahead of Blake Hannum's 761. Mario Jacobellis retains his healthy lead of the series with 816 points.
KID KART PODIUM FOR RACE FOUR
The Jr-1 class continued its' "first timer" streak as it awarded the fourth winner in four races! This field of young drivers has become so close in such a short time that nearly anyone from this competitive field could potentially finish on the podium on any given day. In addition to some great race to race competition, the top three series championship positions continue to be up for grabs between at least the top ten drivers in this exciting class. With a split qualifying format of the 18 entries, former event winner Corrie Hiatt #42 took the pole with a time of 33.05 which was also good enough for quick ET of the event with Flinn Lazier #88 making huge progress from his last race to line up alongside Corrie on the front row.
CORRIE AND FLINN ON THE FRONT ROW
The heat race was pretty much a bumper to bumper string among the top half of the field with numerous position changes and what looked like a photo finish. Unfortunately, a computer failure occurred during the heat race making an accurate account of the winner, let alone the finishing order impossible. After careful consideration by CJKC Race Director Mike Weatherman, the racers and parents, the field was set for the main event. Tensions were high along the pit fence and throughout the grand stands as Corrie and Flinn lead the field of 18 down the main straight toward the green flag. Once the green was shown and all the Karts made it through turn one clean a sigh of relief was heard among the crowd expecting the balance of the race to be close, tough and exciting but hopefully business as usual.
CORRIE TAKES THE FIELD AROUND FOR THE MAIN
It was not to be so as the combination of technical layout, nose to tail maneuvers, size of the class and valuable series points all contributed to more spins, bumps, bangs, slides and tangles than this observer could count or even keep track of. It was a challenging day for many, but when the dust settled, (literally) another first time winner crossed the finish line. It was Flinn Lazier #88 the 2007 Kid Kart Nationals Champion displaying a level of driving and maturity well beyond is years in his first year of Jr-1. Coming in 2nd was Jr-1 senior driver Skyler Granger #0 keeping his cool and working through the tough field. Taking the last spot on the podium and his first in '08 was Nick Guidera #9 in 3rd. Former event winner Connery Scott #32 held on for 4th and Brooks Dickerson #77 had his best day yet bringing home 5th. Series points contender AJ Jacobellis #21 finished 6th, Jake Graser #6 7th, Brandan Finning #26 kept his series podium hopes alive with 8th, Kyle Surface #88J was strong in 9th, and Evan Hannum #2 rounded out the top ten. Eleventh was Corrie Hiatt #42, Lindsey Freier #18 12th, Nathaniel Freier #38 13th, Christian Geist #96 14th, Lucas Hannabass #9x in 15th, Scott Draudt #33 16th, first time driver and new club member Keanu Gallegos #11 17th and rounding out the largest Jr-1 field to date was Cooper Dickerson #7. The series points after race four see leader Connery Scott retain his position with 784 and a tie for 2nd between Brandan Finning and Skyler Granger both with 759. Only 5 points behind is AJ Jacobellis in 4th with 754 and another 5 points down is Jake Graser with 749 in 5th.
 
JR-1 TOP THREE LARGEST JR-1 PODIUM TO DATE
The next stop for the IKF 4-a Junior Karting Championship Series will be July 13th at the popular Gand Junction Motor Speedway on Colorado's western slope. The road circuit layout promises to be another challenge for both driver and crew and may see fields as high as 12 in Kid Kart and over 20 in Jr-1 so don't miss it!
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